Huh? We believe that you need to fully define the goals of your advertising before you can create an effective and cost-effective strategy. That’s why when you work with LKH&S, we begin by defining your goals, and then we drill down as far as we can to get to know your business, its history, successes, failures, and more to help you achieve them. We ask lots of questions. Lots of them. Because that’s the only way to find the right answers.

Every ad agency talks about the power of brands. And, they’re right. But, it takes a lot of work and experience to build a brand, nurture it, define it, defend it, and capitalize on it. Luckily, at LKH&S we’ve done just that for a lot of different brands. And, we’re ready to do it for yours.

We admit it. We’re research junkies. That’s why we have so many in-house research resources. We want to know everything about your business, your market, and, especially, your consumers. It may seem obvious, but: Knowing is better than guessing (and a lot cheaper and more effective). By the time we’re done, we’re going to learn a lot about your customers: Who they are, where they are, how to speak to them, when to reach out to them, what their needs are, and how we can fulfill them. If it sounds like we’re building a relationship, we are.

We hate those guys. And, we’re going to do everything we can to make them regret that they didn’t hire us first. So, as part of our research, we take a long, hard look at the competitive landscape to figure out what your competitors are saying, their strengths, weaknesses, and the advantages or disadvantages of their products and services. The goal is to come up with a plan that allows us to outflank them, without necessarily outspending them.

There is no panacea, no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to a marketing challenge. But, together, we’ll find the right answers. So, what’s right for you? Broadcast? Print? Direct marketing? Social media? Digital advertising? A killer website? Lead generation? Direct sales? Brand building? All of the above? None of the above? Fortunately, LKH&S has experience doing all of these things.

It also pays to take risks (informed risks). It pays to be creative and try new things. It pays to remember that great advertising isn’t determined by a budget, but by building your brand. It pays to be true to your values. It pays to value experience and to find partners as committed to your success as you are. And, of course, that’s us.

Huh? We believe that you need to fully define the goals of your advertising before you can create an effective and cost-effective strategy. That’s why when you work with LKH&S, we begin by defining your goals, and then we drill down as far as we can to get to know your business, its history, successes, failures, and more to help you achieve them. We ask lots of questions. Lots of them. Because that’s the only way to find the right answers.

Every ad agency talks about the power of brands. And, they’re right. But, it takes a lot of work and experience to build a brand, nurture it, define it, defend it, and capitalize on it. Luckily, at LKH&S we’ve done just that for a lot of different brands. And, we’re ready to do it for yours.

We admit it. We’re research junkies. That’s why we have so many in-house research resources. We want to know everything about your business, your market, and, especially, your consumers. It may seem obvious, but: Knowing is better than guessing (and a lot cheaper and more effective). By the time we’re done, we’re going to learn a lot about your customers: Who they are, where they are, how to speak to them, when to reach out to them, what their needs are, and how we can fulfill them. If it sounds like we’re building a relationship, we are.

We hate those guys. And, we’re going to do everything we can to make them regret that they didn’t hire us first. So, as part of our research, we take a long, hard look at the competitive landscape to figure out what your competitors are saying, they’re strengths, weaknesses, and the advantages or disadvantages of their products and services. The goal is to come up with a plan that allows us to outflank them, without necessarily outspending them.

There is no panacea, no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to a marketing challenge. But, together, we’ll find the right answers. So, what’s right for you? Broadcast? Print? Direct marketing? Social media? Digital advertising? A killer website? Lead generation? Direct sales? Brand building? All of the above? None of the above? Fortunately, LKH&S has experience doing all of these things.

It also pays to take risks (informed risks). It pays to be creative and try new things. It pays to remember that great advertising isn’t determined by a budget, but by building your brand. It pays to be true to your values. It pays to value experience and to find partners as committed to your success as you are. And, of course, that’s us.

Our Work

When looking at an agency, the work often tells the story. Take a tour of our gallery to get to know us. If you want to know more, contact us and we can provide in-depth case studies.

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Our Story

We Started In The Back Of A Chicago Type House.

Remember those? It was 1992. There were no iPhones, no iPads, no Google, no Twitter. There was, however, LKH&S. Founded by four advertising veterans who believed, as most entrepreneurs do, that there had to be a better way. A better way to create advertising. A better way to serve clients. A better way to do business.

Over two decades later, that better way has kept us in business. And, over the years, we’ve worked on some of America’s best brands, working with – and employing – some great people.

While technology and the marketplace have changed, our vision and our mission haven’t.

We believe that success in today’s marketplace depends on connecting clients with consumers, and that everything we do, every program we develop, and every ad we create must be designed to establish a connection between our clients and consumers that is actionable, meaningful and profound.

To help our clients realize their goals.

(Yep, it’s that simple.)

Our Clients

Since our founding, LKH&S has served clients large and small, B2C and B2B. And we’ve done just about everything for them from A to Z – including raising awareness, driving sales, generating leads, introducing products, increasing profits, cutting costs, building relationships, understanding the marketplace, and outperforming their competition. Here’s just a partial list of the many brands we have promoted.

Christina Seiwert

Katie Huffaker

Public Relations Director

“The nature of media today is such that a person, a vehicle and a platform all have the potential to become a brand and an outlet. My goal is to find the best strategies to drive the greatest return in earned and owned media for our clients.”

David Spreckman

Account Supervisor/Social Media Manager

“When it comes to making friends and influencing people, we know how to guide both B2B and B2C clients through the changing social media landscape.”

Jennyfer Butzen Dougherty

Account Supervisor, Media Strategist

“I have a simple philosophy about putting together big media plans without big budgets: it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”

Mark vanderVinne

Art Director

“I have a strong understanding of visual communication, which is hard to put into words, but I have an even stronger desire to do the best work possible for our clients.”

Warren Window

Director of UX/UI

“We offer all the technical skills a client needs, but best of all we know how to use those skills to keep our clients’ business relevant in the changing digital marketplace”

Mary Kate Chlada

Copywriter

“Messages are coming at people from every direction, and my goal is tell a brand’s story in a way that breaks through the clutter.”

Joshua D’Haene

Account Coordinator

“Client satisfaction and success are my top priority. We achieve this by building positive client relationships, and working to ensure their needs are met on time, on budget and on strategy.”

Michelle Hernandez

Office Manager

“I’m proud to say that my job makes everybody else’s job possible. And a big part of my job is making everybody else’s job easier.”

Rebecca Dillon

Director of Print Production

“In this digital age it’s more important than ever to make your print advertising look its best. That’s what I do. Of course, the art directors help. Sometimes.”

Our Talents

Whatever the medium, whatever the discipline, LKH&S offers clients a wealth of experience and a broad array of talents. To simply note that we conceive and produce everything from websites to print ads, commercials to collateral, trade show booths to Facebook pages, digital ads to direct mail packages, doesn’t fully convey what we can offer you.

We’re here

LKH&S

Challenged by a heavily competitive Chicago healthcare market, the University of Illinois Medical Center needed a way to break through and communicate the successes of its world-class liver center. LKH&S helped by creating and branding the Walter Payton Liver Center. An integrated campaign blanketed Chicago and Illinois to make the best care available… available to everybody. The Center had 19% net awareness just 4 months into the campaign and received its highest historical levels of patients.

As part of our campaign to launch the new Walter Payton Liver Center, LKH&S created a series of television and radio spots, including the one seen here. To drive home our key message that “the best care available…is available to everybody,” we employed some beloved Chicago sports figures, and one individual not so beloved by Bears fans.

DampRid is a natural and highly effective moisture controller that reduces excess moisture in indoor air, helping to eliminate musty odor, while creating fresher, cleaner indoor air. However, the product has low awareness and its use isn’t intuitive. Research indicated that most people couldn’t recognize excess moisture as easily as they can identify musty odor problems. So, LKH&S created a television campaign that used a hero Mom to identify musty odors and time-lapse photography to visually demonstrate just how DampRid works.

In the eyes of many boaters, catamarans are respected for their smooth ride, but some boaters fear they have to surrender the thrill of boating for all that comfort. In this first ad for World Cat, LKH&S featured an image of a catamaran flying across the water, with the simple message that boaters don’t have to sacrifice a thing to still get all the fun of boating without all the bumps and bruises that go with it.

As part of our ongoing campaign to raise awareness, web traffic and sales of DampRid, LKH&S created this engaging, high-involvement digital ad. Since storms and periods of high humidity drive DampRid sales, LKH&S employed weather related targeting on weather.com and served ads in specific geographies where moisture from precipitation and humidity levels were high. The interstitial digital format was highly effective in the markets where ads were deployed.

Mold Armor is the most effective mold treatment product for your home. But, low awareness led to a television campaign test with a series of :30 and :15 spots. To make the serious issue of mold more accessible to consumers, LKH&S created an animated “Mold Stain” that became the focal point of the spots. This mold stain allowed us to showcase the various Mold Armor products and applications. The campaign was so effective, our animated mold stain became a product symbol online, on packaging and in print.

When the Mold Armor brand was transformed into Home Armor to become part of a whole-house cleaning solution for consumers, LKH&S created a website that not only promoted the brand, highlighted the product line, drove sales, but became a true solution center for consumers. This comprehensive website helps consumers identify their mold problems, provides information on solving those problems, and even provides an e-commerce option to buy Home Armor products. Built in an easily updated CMS platform, it’s one of several sites LKH&S built for W.M. Barr.

Getting to key decision-makers at large national retailers can be problematic. Not so much for Leggett & Platt with LKH&S in their corner. Using a proven 3-Phase approach, LKH&S got around gatekeepers and company gift policies with an innovative approach that garnered a 65% response. At the heart of this campaign was a unique offer that made both our client and their prospects heroes. Contact us, and we’ll tell you more.

At the time, L&P was the largest manufacturer of store fixtures, often seen as a distant giant by customers. What began as an internal campaign to boost employee performance was then transformed into print ads targeting fixturing buyers. The rich photography highlighted Leggett employees, putting a human face on the company. This campaign helped drive on-time complete deliveries to 98% and lifted Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) scores by 6 points.

When World Cat wanted boaters to know about all the advantages an outboard-powered catamaran (OPC) delivers, they turned to LKH&S. After months of research and analytics, the agency developed a brand strategy and built a toolbox of marketing assets. Among them is what many view as the boating industry’s best website. Focusing on OPC advantages over mono-hull boats and leveraging the brand print, this website is a key component of a memorable brand launch.

As the world’s leading brand in arts and crafts, Crayola has become synonymous with creativity. Of course, this forces the highest standard of creativity for their advertising. LKH&S was up to the task when it created this campaign targeting teachers. The campaign (paired with direct mail) produced sales-generating successes and even an award-winning ad.

What could be more iconic in your childhood memory than the Crayola 64 crayon box? However, Crayola is not known for making modeling clay; a product line they wished to promote. So, LKH&S used production-line crayon boxes to create a direct mail package to introduce teachers to Crayola’s new Model Magic. It’s easy to imagine that these boxes drew attention, got opened and generated double-digit response rates. Because, that’s exactly what they did.

In a crowded field of service providers, Argent Healthcare Financial Services wanted to get into the considered set. LKH&S helped them do exactly that by negotiating for FREE use of the star of Hasbro’s board game Operation. Cavity Sam, the memorable, iconic figure drew attention with the target audience (healthcare CFO’s) and generated a rapid growth in brand awareness. Direct mail was also used to effectively deliver qualified sales leads.

LKH&S worked on several projects for Diners Club, including this ad. While competitors with larger budgets can reach consumers directly, LKH&S found a more cost-effective way to promote Diners Club to business travelers. We targeted their travel agents, reminding them that no one treats their clients better than Diners Club. Our goal was to influence the influencers, and we succeeded.

Although Black Flag is the oldest brand of insecticide, Raid is the category killer (yeah, pun intended). While Raid has its “cute bugs,” we created a campaign to make Black Flag look, well, badass. The agency negotiated with Paul Teutul of American Chopper for a multi-year deal to endorse the category’s most lethal killer. Using a combination of display and pre-roll, this Internet campaign reached the highest levels of engagement in the agency’s history. Sales reflected a similar success.

As a client directive, the agency was asked to drive Facebook followers to Black Flag’s page and grow their likes from 90 to 60,000. Employing Paul Teutul, the agency created a sweeps for a grand prizewinner to receive an Orange County Chopper and meet the star. The result? We blew by the 60K mark and ended the campaign with 90,000 followers.

Power and speed. That’s what competitive boaters and anglers crave. And, Evinrude’s line of outboards certainly has the guts to compete. Over several years, LKH&S created a comprehensive campaign for Evinrude that included broadcast, print, direct mail, and outdoor. The examples you see here are only a few of the ways we generated awareness and sales for Evinrude.

Brand Steward, Brand Advocate, Brand Evangelist, call it whatever you like, but we get into our clients’ brands. And, we understand them. Intellectually and emotionally. We take it upon ourselves to comprehend (or create) every aspect of a brand’s character. And, we imbue this character into the visual identity of the brand’s iconography.

When International Truck needed to get their national accounts salesforce into meetings with medium-duty fleet buyers, they turned to LKH&S. Using a highly targeted list of key decision-makers, the agency employed a 3-phase high-impact direct mail program to get the job done. Focusing on Lowest Cost of Ownership (LCO) as the essential measure of a truck’s value, the agency was successful in generating a 34% response rate and just under $10 million in new sales.

Is there a mosquito repellent that really works? There is, and our client, Thermacell, makes it. To convince campers, hunters, and anyone with a backyard that there’s a way to enjoy the great outdoors without getting bitten, LKH&S created an innovative digital and print campaign that focused on the 15-ft. mosquito barrier Thermacell creates, and offered the great reviews Thermacell receives online to prove it.

HOMExperts, a division of Owens Corning, was an effort to create a national provider of home handyman and repair services. A failed launch brought the company to LKH&S. And, we immediately began doing our homework. In doing so, we discovered a preponderance of female respondents in their database. Using this and other research, we created a new canvas of advertising that promoted the female of the house and poked fun at their men. And, it worked. The campaign was able to reduce their Cost Per Lead by 86%.

Beyond being one of the three largest credit bureaus in the US, TransUnion is a leader in credit information and information management services. LKH&S produced a number of campaigns for TransUnion involving print, web, and collateral. The campaign you see here focuses on TransUnion’s ability to help clients transform raw data into actionable, measurable, and invaluable marketing tools.

As part of a private equity purchase, Nissan Forklifts and TCM Forklifts were merged into a brand named UniCarriers. A year after the initial launch, awareness had not reached acceptable levels. Enter LKH&S. After heavy buyer research, a new campaign was developed to create differentiation. Focusing on reliability as the key message and promoting industry-leading advantages, in just 6 months, LKH&S increased awareness by 300% from the baseline audit.

As a pro-bono account, LKH&S helped the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois reach out to at-risk communities by designing graphics for The KidneyMobile — a custom mobile unit offering free prevention education and health screenings for high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney disease. The agency created a “heroic” facade for the unit that, to date, has screened over 42,000 people in Illinois.

SPG International, a spinoff from Leggett & Platt, offers the foodservice industry a complete line of storage products. To help launch its new brand, build awareness and convey the breadth of its product line, LKH&S created this unique tradeshow exhibit: The SPG Grill. Capturing the spirit of a 1950’s diner, the SPG Grill recreated every area of a working restaurant and used clever 2-dimensional graphics to set-off and highlight the real, 3-dimensional equipment.